Don't Just Sit There!: 44 Insights to Get Your Meditation Practice Off the Cushion and Into the Real World


Biet Simkin - 2019
    Drawing on hard-won wisdom from her journey through addiction, personal tragedy, and the New York rock-n-roll scene, Biet shares the guidance you’ll need to move from meltdowns to miracles. Don’t Just Sit There! is a guidebook that will empower you to dive into meditation by helping you work through the not-so-peaceful side of achieving peace. With insights on forty-four laws of human experience, it provides week-by-week instructions to process each one. From the Law of Focus to the Law of Desire, these aspects of spiritual life can become obstacles without the tools to properly face them. Experienced and novice meditators alike can benefit from Biet’s frank, freeing advice on how to establish a lifelong practice in an often chaotic modern world. By confronting the disruptive quality of spiritual life, you can motivate yourself to realize the meditative practice of your dreams.

Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything


Viktor E. Frankl - 1946
    Frankl held a series of public lectures in Vienna. The psychiatrist, who would soon become world famous, explained his central thoughts on meaning, resilience, and the importance of embracing life even in the face of great adversity.Published here for the very first time in English, Frankl's words resonate as strongly today--as the world faces a coronavirus pandemic, social isolation, and great economic uncertainty--as they did in 1946. He offers an insightful exploration of the maxim "Live as if you were living for the second time," and he unfolds his basic conviction that every crisis contains opportunity. Despite the unspeakable horrors of the camps, Frankl learned from the strength of his fellow inmates that it is always possible to "say yes to life"--a profound and timeless lesson for us all.

Change: Realizing Your Greatest Potential


Ilchi Lee - 2013
    Both personally and globally, change drives our lives. Despite the new opportunities change can bring, many of us resist and fear it, even as we long for a healthier lifestyle or agree we need a more sustainable culture. Change: Realizing Your Greatest Potential turns this unavoidable condition of life from something fearsome to something empowering by revealing a new perspective on reality. The way we were taught to think of the world is not the way it really is. We are not a mosaic of separate beings in competition for resources. Instead, each of us is an integral part of a whole that encompasses all creation. We are an intrinsic driver behind the force of change. As such, our creative potential is limitless. That potential comes from what author Ilchi Lee discovered over the course of his inner explorations that each of us has a beautiful mind that desires to benefit all beings. This inherent nature is our true greatness and the true power to solidify the changes we envision in our personal lives and the world. Change is urgently needed; the current course of our civilization is no longer tenable. But major changes are not feasible, Lee says, unless we begin with changing ourselves. He says we can start a big change, no matter how daunting it is, with changing our personal attitudes and energy. Change tells you how.

If You Find This Letter: My Journey to Find Purpose Through Hundreds of Letters to Strangers


Hannah Brencher - 2015
    Instead, she found a city full of people who knew where they were going and what they were doing and didn't have time for a girl still trying to figure it all out. Lonely and depressed, she noticed a woman who looked like she felt the same way on the subway. Hannah did something strange--she wrote the woman a letter. She folded it, scribbled If you find this letter, it's for you on the front and left it behind. When she realized that it made her feel better, she started writing and leaving love notes all over the city--in doctor's offices, in coat pockets, in library books, in bathroom stalls. Feeling crushed within a culture that only felt like connecting on a screen, she poured her heart out to complete strangers. She found solace in the idea that her words might brighten someone's day.Hannah's project took on a life of its own when she made an offer on her blog: She would handwrite a note and mail it to anyone who wanted one. Overnight, her inbox exploded with requests from people all over the world. Nearly 400 handwritten letters later, she started the website, The World Needs More Love Letters, which quickly grew. There is something about receiving a handwritten note that is so powerful in today's digital era. If You Find This Letter chronicles Hannah's attempts to bring more love into the world,and shows how she rediscovered her faith through the movement she started.

Stay Tuned: Conversations with Dad from the Other Side


Jenniffer Weigel - 2007
    Stay Tuned is Jenniffer"s story of a father and daughter's journey from materialistic journalists to spiritually attuned spiritual beings--a journey that continues even after his death.During his illness, while Tim turns to alternative treatments like chi gong and reiki sessions, Jenniffer reads Neale Donald Walsch, starts a spiritual diet plan and uses the law of attraction to find free parking spaces. The book takes you on a witty, irreverent trip through popular spiritual beliefs and insights of masters and celebrities, including Don Miguel Ruiz, James Van Praagh and Russell Crowe, as this intelligent, award-winning broadcaster transforms from "cynical daughter" to "spiritual woman."

10-Day Sugar Detox: Easy Meal Plans to Beat Sugar in 10 Days


Dana Angelo White - 2015
    4 Sugar Detox Options. 1 Life-Changing Experience. Live healthier. Lose weight. Cut carbs. Gain energy. Sleep better. Most people who choose to do a sugar detox have similar goals. But just because you want to achieve the same things doesn't mean you're starting from the same place. 10-Day Sugar Detox takes into account the real eating habits of aspiring sugar detoxers. It offers four different detoxes, each of which can be undertaken to end sugar addiction safely and successfully. Which sugar detox is right for you? Orange Plan: Vegetarian Yellow Plan: Carnivorous Green Plan: Grain-free, legume-free Blue Plan: Grain-free, legume-free, dairy-free Each sugar detox includes its own shopping list and meal plan for the 10-day period-so the only thing you have to think about is how good you're going to feel by the end. Recipes include: Cheesy Bacon Breakfast Casserole, Steak Salad with Goat Cheese, Curried Carrot Soup with Basil, Sesame-Ginger Soba Noodles, Spicy Salmon Burgers, Grilled Garlic-Rosemary Pork Tenderloin, Chocolate-Almond Fondue, and more!"

Rattled!: A Memoir


Christine Coppa - 2009
    Everything in twenty-six-year-old Christine’s life was going as planned—great friends, a promising job as a magazine assistant, New York City at her feet . . . even a cute guy. Until the fateful day she realizes she’s pregnant by said cute guy, whom she’d only been dating for a few months. The next thing you know, he bails and Christine is left to wonder, What now? Trading Manhattan for the suburbs, skinny jeans for sweatpants, and all-nighters with the girls for 3 a.m. feedings with a restless infant, Christine chooses to live a life that honors what’s important to her—and finds strength she didn’t know she had in the process.

The 3-Day Effect


NOT A BOOK - 2018
    Whether it’s rafting down Utah’s Green River, backpacking in Arizona’s wilderness or walking through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., scientists are finding that the more exposure humans have to nature, the more they will benefit from reduced anxiety, enhanced creativity and overall well-being. Trek with science journalist Florence Williams as she guides former Iraqi war veterans, sex trafficking survivors, and even a nature hater, on three-day nature excursions to see how the outdoors offers something like a miracle cure for an array of extreme and everyday ailments.

A Girl Raised by Wolves: An inspiring memoir of one woman's journey through sex trafficking, cancer, murder and more.


Lockey Maisonneuve - 2018
    town, an adolescent girl is unwittingly handed a one-way ticket by her mother to allegedly "visit" her estranged father in Florida. Young and vulnerable, Lockey Maisonnueve has no idea she is being abandoned and sent to live with a vile and dangerous pedophile who would spend the next several years violently raping, abusing and mercilessly selling his daughter's body into childhood prostitution to other adult men. After being rescued by her naive, but well-intentioned, grandparents, her troubled life is further devastated by cancer and ravaged by the subsequent brutal murder of her mother, in which Lockey is briefly considered a suspect. "A Girl Raised by Wolves' is the inspirational memoir of a survivor of the darkest circumstances one can endure in a single lifetime and still emerge with a sense of humor and to defiantly proclaim "they didn't break me!"

Crossing The Ditch


James Castrission - 2009
    It tells the story of two mates, a kayak, and the conquest of the Tasman.

The Book of Moods: How I Turned My Worst Emotions Into My Best Life


Lauren Martin - 2020
    She had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, a boyfriend, yet every day she wrestled with feelings of inferiority, anxiety and irritability. It wasn't until a chance encounter with a (charming, successful) stranger who revealed that she also felt these things, that Lauren set out to better understand the hold that these moods had on her, how she could change them, and began to blog about the wisdom she uncovered. It quickly exploded into an international online community of women who felt like she did: lost, depressed, moody, and desirous of change.Inspired by her audience to press even deeper, The Book of Moods shares Lauren's journey to infuse her life with a sense of peace and stability. With observations that will resonate and inspire, she dives into the universal triggers every woman faces -- whether it's a comment from your mother, the relentless grind at your job, days when you wish the mirror had a Valencia filter, or all of the above. Blending cutting-edge science, timeless philosophy, witty anecdotes and effective forms of self-care, Martin has written a powerful, intimate, and incredibly relatable chronicle of transformation, proving that you really can turn your worst moods into your best life.

Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self


Manoush Zomorodi - 2017
    Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show us how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem. Manoush explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process.Grounding the book in the neuroscience and cognitive psychology of “mind wandering”—what our brains do when we’re doing nothing at all—Manoush includes practical steps you can take to ease the nonstop busyness and enhance your ability to dream, wonder, and gain clarity in your work and life. The outcome is mind-blowing. Unplug and read on.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work


Mason Currey - 2013
    Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”. . . Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day . . . Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.” Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books . . . Karl Marx . . . Woody Allen . . . Agatha Christie . . . George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing . . . Leo Tolstoy . . . Charles Dickens . . . Pablo Picasso . . . George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers . . . Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”). Brilliantly compiled and edited, and filled with detail and anecdote, Daily Rituals is irresistible, addictive, magically inspiring.

Warrior Goddess Training: Become the Woman You Are Meant to Be


HeatherAsh Amara - 2014
    We now make up more than half the workforce in the United States and are busier than ever with partners, children, family and friends, often putting the needs of others ahead of our own.And if we feel overwhelmed by it all or fall short of perfection, many of us have learned to be our own worst critic rather than our own best friend.In Warrior Goddess Training, bestselling author HeatherAsh Amara provides the antidote to the flawed idea that you are not enough.Direct, honest, and unapologetic, Amara will show you how to release the layers of expectations to finally see yourself for the authentic, perceptive, perfect woman you really are.If you don't love and honor yourself with every fiber of your being, if you struggle with owning your power and passion, if you could use more joyful play and simple presence in your life, then it is time for an inner revolution.It is time to claim your Warrior Goddess energy.Drawing on the wisdom from Buddhism, Toltec wisdom, and ancient Earth-based goddess spirituality, the Warrior Goddess path includes personal stories, rituals, and exercises that will encourage and inspire you to become the true warrior goddess you are meant to be.

Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old


John Leland - 2018
    But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise.Happiness Is a Choice You Make is an enduring collection of lessons that emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. With humility, heart, and wit, Leland has crafted a sophisticated and necessary reflection on how to "live better"--informed by those who have mastered the art.